Northwest Indiana

A healthy crowd showed up at the Indiana Dunes State Park nature center to meet saw-whet owls, but the owls weren't quite ready to make an appearance. About 40 people gathered at the nature center Thursday night for a program on the owls and what was supposed to include an owl banding demonstration....

The Indiana Dunes State Park nature center held a program Oct. 12 on owl banding.

Local sports

BLOOMINGTON — Karan Higdon was the only thing really working for Michigan's offense. The defense did its part all day for the Wolverines. Higdon ran 25 yards for a touchdown on the first play of overtime for No. 17 Michigan. Tyree Kinnel intercepted a fourth-down pass in the end zone on the final...

Like the rest of her Crown Point teammates, senior setter Alex Equihua is bleeding for blue. "Obviously, our main goal is to win state," she said. "But we still have to take it one day at a time. Bleeding blue means that every day, in and out of practice, we're putting in 110 percent to be able...

Tony Munoz surprised himself a little bit. The senior linebacker's interception in the fourth quarter Friday night helped LaPorte pull out a 36-33 Duneland Athletic Conference win against visiting Portage. In a high-scoring, back-and-forth game, Munoz and the Slicers (6-3, 5-2) came up with just...

Michigan City coach Phil Mason walked down to the end of the sideline to be alone. Crown Point trailed by two points Friday night, but was lining up for a 47-yard field goal that would have sent Michigan City to its second straight loss on the final play of a game this season. "We always laugh...

Photo galleries

Less than 50 miles southeast of Chicago is a 15-mile stretch of shifting sands and towering dunes formed over the centuries by the forces of nature. The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was established as a federal park by Congress in 1966 after a 50-year struggle by conservationists. Take a stroll...More

Less than 50 miles southeast of Chicago is a 15-mile stretch of shifting sands and towering dunes formed over the centuries by the forces of nature. The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was established as a federal park by Congress in 1966 after a 50-year struggle by conservationists. Take a stroll

Indiana

A state lawmaker in Indiana has drafted a measure to require licenses for journalists akin to those that pertain to handgun owners, a proposal legal experts says directly violates the First Amendment. The measure would require journalists - defined as anyone writing or broadcasting news for a newspaper,...

The U.S. Education Department wants Purdue University to absorb the debts and liabilities of Kaplan University as a condition for approving the state school's controversial purchase of the for-profit college, a request that critics say could place Indiana taxpayers at risk. Purdue acquired Kaplan's...

An Indiana woman accused of keeping her two daughters confined at home for years allegedly failed to educate the now teenage youths, who told authorities their mother "gave up on (them) a long time ago." The 64-year-old woman faces three counts of neglect of a dependent. Court documents say police...

Authorities say two people have been killed and several others injured after an early morning van crash in northeastern Indiana. WANE-TV reports Allen County Sheriff's Department Captain Steve Stone says a passenger van with 16 people inside, including juveniles, went off the road and hit a tree....

Lifestyles

Visitors to this year's Health & Harmony First Ladies Health Day were greeted with upbeat gospel music as they walked through the entrance door of the Genesis Convention Center. That atmosphere set the stage for a relaxing morning of pampering, health screenings, healthy refreshments, panel discussions...

National Park Service to conduct five prescribed fires The National Park Service is planning five prescribed fires this fall at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Approximately 950 acres are expected to be burned as a tool for the park's long-term restoration and hazard fuel reduction efforts. Prescribed...

The apple trees at our family farm are never sprayed, and so the fruit might look less than perfect, but the taste is beyond compare. Retrieving ripe apples from the bounty found around the yard after a windy day is always a delicious reward for unpredictable weather. Our apple trees always rotate...

The word "duo" may make one think of two musicians each playing his or her instrument. That is not the case for a concert coming to Valparaiso. Now in its 75th year, Concert Association of Valparaiso presents the Lee Bognar Duo Oct. 22 at First United Methodist Church of Valparaiso. Nicole Lee and...

Opinion

This is the last week of the Scratching Post. I want to thank everyone who has either enjoyed my column or yelled at it. It has been a fun ride for over 15 years. Happy Birthday October 22: Kevin LaDuke October 25: Marilyn Kaper October 27: Shelly Wagner Betty October 29: Philip Baumeister Parting thoughts...

What's Quickly? It's where readers sound off on the issues of the day. Have a quote, question or quip? Call Quickly at 312-222-2426 or email quickly@post-trib.com. During the Values Voter Summit, Steve Bannon spoke and very proudly said "Not gonna make the cost-sharing reduction payments. Gonna...

Selling is just one of the phases in the sales process. Because the word "sales" has multiple meanings, there's confusion even with all the books on sales, marketing and selling. Bad marketing can make selling difficult. "The aim of marketing (good marketing) is to make selling superfluous" said...

Ben insisted on only one thing for this column. "I want a picture of my mom and my dad," the 11-year-old boy said while looking through his iPad for just the right photos of his deceased parents. "I want to use these," he said after taking a few minutes to create a digital collage and holding it...

Crime

A Gary man is being held without bail after he was charged with murder in an Oct. 7 homicide in Gary. Joseph James Allen Gilbert, 28, who also uses the name Joseph Lyell, was charged in Lake Superior Court with murder in the shooting death of Michael Brown, 20, of Valparaiso, during a botched drug...

A Gary man was sentenced to 13 years in prison for two 2016 robberies and a probation revocation in an earlier case. Rickkie D. Carr, 22, was sentenced to 10 years for the robberies in Gary and Hobart, and three years in a 2013 burglary case for which his probation was revoked. Carr, 22, told Lake...

A man who pleaded guilty nearly three months ago to robbery in exchange for a 14-year sentence is asking a judge to set aside his plea. Roberto Pettigrew-Sanders began writing letters to the judge and filing motions on his own a few weeks after he submitted the plea agreement on July 17. In court,...

An 87-year-old man found beaten last month in Gary has died, and police are asking for the public's help in providing tips in the case, an official said. The man was found at about 7 p.m. Sept. 25 in the area of 40th Avenue and Broadway, police said. He "suffered a significant head injury during...

The following are stories as they appeared in The Lake County Star, a weekly newspaper started more than 150 years ago that covered all of Lake County and most of Porter County. The paper was owned and operated by the Wheeler family, descendants of Crown Point founder Solon Robinson. Items are...

The Environmental Club at St. Mary's School in Crown Point loves to go fishing. And on a recent Saturday morning in September, the club members had a great time fishing at one of their principal Tom Ruiz's "secret" fishing holes. It took some planning to get 36 kids and parents to this private...

Most read stories this hour

Vernon Hill revealed things about himself to me that most of us wouldn't share in a confessional booth. Heroin addiction. Crack cocaine smoking. Marijuana joints. Sex with prostitutes. Begging for money. Four prison sentences. Lying to others. Lying to himself. Living on "Cardboard Street" next...

A Hobart man with a history of sexually abusing animals is set to be released from jail on a probation violation, according to court documents, but will not receive any medical treatment to curb his behavior as he asked the court to include in his sentencing. Michael Bessigano, 46, was sentenced...

News of America's military men and women who were wounded and killed in Iraq and Afghanistan almost overwhelmed me on some days. I may have sounded strong when I was talking to the press, but sometimes I had to push my feelings way down in order to get any words out of my mouth to make statements...

10 thoughts after the Chicago Bears snapped a 10-game road losing streak to upset the Baltimore Ravens 27-24 in overtime Sunday afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium. 1. For a couple of kids raised in Baltimore who grew up in a city where guys like Ray Lewis and Ed Reed were larger-than-life icons, faces...

It was a faint signal, but it told of one of the most violent acts in the universe, and it would soon reveal secrets of the cosmos, including how gold was created. Astronomers around the world reacted to the signal quickly, focusing telescopes located on every continent and even in orbit to a distant...

Dear Amy: My brother-in-law and I don't have a particularly good relationship, and one of the sticking points is gun ownership. He believes in the right to carry (openly), and I think guns should be carried only by police. Every time I ask him not to bring guns near our family (we have three young...

Kris Bryant — putting “K’’ in “KB.’’ John Lackey — can’t spell his last name without an “L.’’ That’s reducing the Cubs’ misfortunes in the National League Championship Series to a Twitter-size description. But if you’ve been deemed worthy of driving the new Twitter two-fer model, you could do it...

Time for another ‘Plan,’ perhaps? NBC Sports Chicago’s David Kaplan, whose contribution to the library section dedicated to the 2016 Cubs was “The Plan: Epstein, Maddon, and the Audacious Blueprint for a Cubs Dynasty” was beside himself on the channel’s postgame show Sunday.Maddon opting to use...

The Chicago area has formally joined the fray to land Amazon’s second headquarters, which will bring up to 50,000 high-paying jobs to the winning North American city. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said the Chicago area’s bid for HQ2 was submitted electronically Monday, the first...

I was going to write a dispute of Mayim Bialik’s problematic sexual harassment op-ed, but tens of thousands of women and men beat me to it with two simple, terrible words: Me too. The one-two gut punch populated social media feeds for most of Sunday, inspired by a viral post (credited originally...

One person died and at least two others were seriously injured after two cars collided with a semi-tractor trailer late Monday morning at the Orchard Road I-88 overpass, Kane County sheriff's officials said Monday. Investigators are looking into whether the collisions are related to two Aurora...

Following up on a marijuana arrest from Oct. 7, where a forged Mexican passport was also found, Round Lake Park authorities announced Monday that another arrest netted 600 pounds of marijuana that they say is linked to a cartel in Mexico. "This is probably one of the biggest busts in the Round...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he thinks NFL players should stop protesting during the national anthem and instead speak out against domestic violence. The Republican former presidential hopeful sent a letter Monday to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Players Association Executive Director...

During the campaign, when President Donald Trump's team wanted him to stop talking about a certain issue — such as when he attacked a Gold Star military family — they sometimes presented him with polls demonstrating how the controversy was harming his candidacy. During the transition, when aides...

Add the former Michael Reese Hospital site, once pegged as the Olympic Village in Chicago’s failed bid for the 2016 Summer Games, to the list of potential homes for Amazon’s second headquarters. A group of Chicago firms including Farpoint Development and Draper & Kramer plans a multibillion-dollar...

Authorities on Friday released dozens of police reports and witness statements into the death of Kenneka Jenkins, revealing new details about what officials say was a tragic accident and puncturing conspiracy theories that have circulated online. Jenkins, 19, was found dead Sept. 10 in the walk-in...

Las Vegas' tourism sector is bracing for changes in the aftermath of the massacre that killed 58 people at an outdoor music festival. Analysts who closely track the finances of the city's casino companies say Las Vegas will see a short-term dip in visitors in response to the shooting. Casinos and...

Former hostage Joshua Boyle said Monday he and his wife decided to have children even while held captive because they always planned to have a big family and decided, "Hey, let's make the best of this and at least go home with a larger start on our dream family." Boyle, his American wife, Caitlan...

Storm Ophelia claimed its first victims in Ireland, as three people died amid some of the worst weather conditions to hit the country in 50 years. A woman in her 70s was killed after a tree fell on her car in Waterford in the south-east of the country, state broadcaster RTE said. A man in his 30s...

Carent Stables of Naperville touts itself as the “quintessential equine experience,” a breeding business that’s produced winners at tracks such as Arlington International Racecourse and Hawthorne Race Course. Co-owners Carol Delgado and Brent Houck have basked in the success. The stable’s website...

One of the largest investors in Sears Holdings is stepping down from the struggling retailer’s board at the end of the month, the company announced Monday. Bruce Berkowitz, a member of the board since February 2016, is chief investment officer of Fairholme Capital Management, which holds about...

Timothy King heard a loud bang late Saturday outside his Far South Side home but didn't think anything of it.“I thought I heard what was a gunshot, and since it’s a thunderstorm going on, I thought maybe it's just thunder," said King, 28, a music teacher.Then he saw the lights of police cars and...

Cynthia and John Trevillion, both longtime teachers at the Chicago Waldorf School in Rogers Park, were trying to catch a train at the Morse CTA station, a few blocks from their home, to meet up with friends Friday night. At the sound of rapid gunshots, John quickly dropped to the ground. But Cynthia,...

Joe Maddon apparently isn’t a big fan of criticism via social media. When informed by a reporter Monday that he was taking hits for some of his decisions during the National League Championship Series against the Dodgers, the Cubs manager said, “social media, the moment I start worrying about that...

Mitch Trubisky did something Sunday no rookie quarterback has done against the Ravens under coach John Harbaugh since 2008 – win at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. In Trubisky’s first career road start, he had more than a little help halting that streak from a defense that forced three Ravens turnovers...